Major US Leagues and Player Unions Demand Action Against Abusive Sports Bettors

Five of America’s biggest professional sports leagues and their players’ associations have joined forces to call for tougher rules against abusive sports bettors.

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In a letter dated September 15, 2026, the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS, along with their unions, urged state gaming commissions to act against the growing problem of harassment and threats directed at athletes, coaches, and officials. They warned that while legal sports betting has created new ways for fans to engage, it has also opened the door to dangerous behavior.

The leagues stressed that threats against players and their families cross a clear line. “Threatening the safety of an athlete or their family members over a sports bet crosses a bright ethical and criminal line, and it is entirely unacceptable,” the letter stated. 

They argued that protecting participants must come before any wager, and asked regulators to ensure that those who harass athletes lose their betting privileges permanently. 

Push for lifetime bans and stronger safeguards

The joint appeal laid out specific measures for regulators to adopt. At the top of the list is a mandatory lifetime ban for anyone verified to have issued violent threats or abusive harassment toward athletes, coaches, officials, or their families. 

The leagues want state-regulated sportsbooks and mobile operators to revoke betting privileges permanently in such cases. 

They also called for a streamlined reporting system that would allow leagues, teams, and unions to send verified evidence of threats directly to regulators and law enforcement. The proposal suggests that exclusion in one state should automatically apply in others, creating a nationwide safeguard.

Operator accountability was another key demand. The letter urged regulators to require sportsbooks to monitor and flag accounts linked to abusive behavior as a condition of their operating licenses. 

Some states, including Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana, and Wyoming, already maintain exclusionary lists that ban bad actors from licensed sportsbooks. But the leagues insist that uniform rules across all states are needed. 

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“We call on all state gaming commissions and state policymakers to promptly adopt uniform rules and legislative guardrails to help address this behavior,” the leagues and players associations stated.

Operators and regulators already making moves

The push from the major leagues and unions is not happening in isolation. Operators and regulators have already begun to take steps that mirror the demands laid out in the letter. In June, Fanatics Sportsbook introduced a program designed to block bettors who harass athletes online. 

Built with Integrity Compliance 360’s ProhiBet Bad Actor platform and Signify Group’s Threat Matrix service, the system scans public social media for abusive or threatening content. Offenders face suspension or permanent removal from sportsbook accounts, with names shared across participating operators to prevent repeat offenses.

This was not the first move in that direction. Back in February, BetMGM announced a zero‑tolerance policy for abuse, promising to suspend accounts immediately when harassment is detected. 

Players themselves have also pushed for change. The MLB Players Association raised the issue of individual prop bets during collective bargaining talks in June, arguing that wagers tied to player performance fuel harassment from frustrated gamblers. Their proposal extended beyond sportsbooks to daily fantasy operators and prediction markets. Several states, including Utah, Kentucky, and Louisiana, have already considered or enacted restrictions on prop betting.

The same concerns have been echoed in college sports. The NCAA has long warned about the risks of prop bets, and earlier this year the Big Ten Student‑Athlete Issues Commission wrote directly to NCAA President Charlie Baker, urging him to act. 

Baker himself is a big supporter of this college prop betting ban and has long appealed to state regulators and even the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, asking them to scale back college prop bets.

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